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You've lost lane, is it okay to leave

Pisdov·4/21/2015, 2:22:16 PM·3 votes·2,126 views

I'll elaborate...

It happens to everyone, some times you make some bad decisions early on and find yourself way behind in lane. Now usually in this situation I'll CS under tower and get what I can from lane until the tower goes down. But I've found myself in a position a couple of times lately where even CS under tower was not safe. One example was mid lane against a Malz, who would ult me under tower and jungle would dive me.

Now, if I lose lane, I try to at least not feed so I don't create a problem for the rest of the team. So in a position where I can't CS without dying, I've begun leaving the lane and roaming. It's actually worked out decently well, netting kills for other lanes. But, even so, teammates constantly rage at me for doing it. "Get out of my lane fuckin noob" etc...

So I'm just curious as to the general opinion of the community. Seems to me a better option than getting no farm and risking feeding your lane opponent.

15 Comments

djjomon4/21/2015, 2:24:56 PM6 votes

This isn't a yes or no answer, as it varies by the game. But I voted yes.

If you're dying under tower, but can make yourself by roaming, go roam. Just don't take your allies' CS, or leech their exp without getting something in return. Imagine the jungler walking to your lane and doing nothing. DOn't do that when you roam. But if you can help, definitely help. Try to set up ganks, even if you just push the enemy back a bit.

If you're going to roam, be smart about it. But that's definitely better than dying under tower.

TeemoJenkins4/21/2015, 2:26:13 PM3 votes

Was playing Garen against a Xin Zhao, he was down 0 3 on kills and more than a dozen CS. He abandoned lane, went bot and got a triple kill on our jg / adc / sup. I got the tower, but that gold was enough to get him back into the game and relevant. A smart roam when you've lost lane can help win the game for your team. Be cautious though about taking other lanes CS

Krigjer4/21/2015, 2:27:32 PM1 votes

I voted yes because I've done it myself.

If other lanes have not shown that they might need help, I'll take a jungle camp or two if my jungler doesn't need it. If I can't even farm under tower, I'll let my jungler know it's going to fall and I'm allowing it to, in the hopes that a gank will be easier going up to the inner turret (all that extra room and all).

warpenguin5554/21/2015, 2:30:33 PM1 votes

Thats ok imo but if the laner you're ganking doesnt want you there i wouldnt keep on going there. For me its generally "You can come but dont take my CS and dont feed the other guy." Helping during a gank or with dragon is something i doubt people would get mad about

ValyrianBlade4/21/2015, 3:00:29 PM1 votes

I think the point has mostly been made but I'll say it a little different:

Roaming is good. Taking ally's CS and possibly even XP is bad. If you're going to roam, get to the lane, apply the gank, and leave. Establish vision on your way. Take jungle camps that your jungler doesn't seem to want (it doesn't hurt to ask if it's okay too).

It's often best to coordinate with the jungler. Make the ganks really impactful by having you both gank together. Try to give the kill to the other laner as you're obviously pretty far behind and you need them to carry. Once you succeed in a gank, continue with the jungler to take a further objective (either take tower with the lane, get dragon, or go in to the enemy jungle and take a camp or two and place a ward or two since the nearest lane is dead and at worst you'll run in to the enemy jungler 2v1).

If you're far enough behind that you're freely dying under tower, your only options are to try to farm the jungle, to get the jungler to help you farm under tower when it's pushed, and to roam for ganks. So coordinate with the jungler and try to do all 3. Any xp/cs you take from the jungler should be offset by giving him your CS under tower and so he really shouldn't complain about it.

Sir ArmaMalum4/21/2015, 3:43:55 PM1 votes

In your specific example, yes. But as Djjomon said it's entirely based on context.

Ideally you'd be able to stay in lane, farm well under tower, and come back from your early game mistakes. However, if being under tower is still not safe there are several options to pursue:

  • Roaming, as you said
  • Lane swapping. This can work out better or worse than roaming. On one hand you have someone in your lane making sure it's not getting super-pushed, on the other the jungler and others can still punish you in another lane.
  • Pressuring objectives. Dragon control is big. Roaming bot to take dragon often forces another teams hand and results in a teamfight. If your team can win that it'll really help you out as well, not to mention breaking the other team down a bit.

But in general, yes, it is better to try elsewhere if your lane is getting that bad. Assuming of course you do not die in other lanes as well.

SSJTribe4/21/2015, 7:30:52 PM1 votes

I voted no, but I'd like to share my reasoning.

One roam, or two even is fine. But you cannot just abandon your lane completely, especially if your lane opponent continues to split push. Recently, I had a game where our top lane matchup was Riven (us) VS Mundo (them). At about level 10, Riven suddenly announces, "well I can't kill Mundo anymore", and she abruptly leaves her lane. Mundo is top split-pushing and CS'ing freely for quite awhile, and it gets to the point where it takes 2 or 3 of us just to keep him off the inhibitor. He had gotten all three towers while our team tried to push mid. We eventually start losing our bottom towers, the enemy team takes dragon after dragon, because we cannot do anything to stop this Mundo. Sure our team could've reacted better to the situation, but the point is, your lane opponent is your responsibility, and you can't just leave them alone for extended periods of time.

TL;DR Roaming is fine but you need to make sure your lane opponent doesn't push your base in.

Meep Man4/21/2015, 7:35:25 PM1 votes

If it is a guaranteed death if you stay in lane and you do nothing with the death in any way, yes. Leave.

doiminat0r36004/21/2015, 10:37:35 PM1 votes

I think its not something to be discouraged if they do stay in lane. I think that its not a 'noob' thing to do either because atleast youre putting some pressure on that lane and having some resistance against the enemy laner. The team is probably gonna mop up their lanes (assuming youre winning) and come help you anyway which lets your lane snowball. Its not a bad thing to stay in lane.

City of Toronto4/21/2015, 10:48:41 PM1 votes

You can most definitely leave your lane to roam here and there to do some quick, unpredictable movements around the map to do some catch up, but you cannot rely on roaming as your primary source of gold and exp income. They can easily adapt to your tactics and punish you even harder. Often times, the enemy mid laner will just take your turret and roam as well, at which point you can no longer stop them from roaming. 3/0 roaming midlaner > 0/3 roaming midlaner. Thus, it's sometimes better for you to just stay in lane and peek the minion wave pushed in so that the enemy mid laner does not have the freedom to roam. Cut losses and keep it in your lane only, prevent them from snowballing it.

Chespin20134/22/2015, 9:49:21 AM1 votes

this really depends on the situation if ur just babysitting ur lane like ur vs a nasus its ok too roam but idk if ur pretty behind and getting camped i think thats another issue that needs explaining

IcyPepper4/22/2015, 9:57:00 AM1 votes

This is a team game, not a "stay in your lane and if you lose the game it's mid lane's fault for not being able to 1v5 50 minutes in."

Satire, yes, but it makes my point. If mid comes to my lane as the adc and uses waveclear spells to take two whole waves of minions when my enemy laners are in his lane taking our tower... or mid doesn't even do anything but take my cs... then there's a problem.

lB2kGRlc8y4/22/2015, 12:06:06 PM1 votes

Champions like Veigar have no other choice, as their kits are only conducive to teamfights. At the same time though, if you're crushed on your lane and can no longer deal with the enemy, (kat got her ludens) The enemy will often begin roaming too.